Thoughts about Living History, especially 18th Century Middleground, and other things I've found of interest, animals, pets, music, dance, especially Contra Dance and waltz, fiber arts especially spinning and knitting, wine, beer and cordial making, pickling and gardening. Or anything else that happens along the way.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Sweater on hold; Making Mitts

Well, After I got a bit done on the sleeves and the body I decided I didn't like the way it was coming out. Things have been really hectic these days, so I haven't had time to figure out if I messed up my calculations, but that's what I expect. When I get some time (after marching band season) I'll redo my calculations. I expect to have to rip back a few inches of the sleeves and body, readjust and start that part over.

In the mean time I've been aware that the lovely warm weather we've had is not going to last, so I found a ball of natural cream color hand spun Targhee wool and invented/unvented a mitt pattern. My goal was to be able to knit or spin while keeping my wrists and the backs of my hands warm. I wanted my fingers and the palms of my hands free to work.

I started by hand-chaining a length of the yarn long enough to fit around my middle or index finger, put the loop on a wooden double pointed knitting needle, then picking up one side of 3 of the chains. Turned, then knitted across those stitches, knitting into the front and back of each loop, thus doubling the number of stitches. Then I started in to make a 2-faced fabric by double knitting. After the first double knit row (k1,s1 across, turn, repeat on the other side) I did an increase at the 2nd from the end of every other row.

When this ever-increasing triangle was long enough that it would fit around my wrist it also seemed to be long enough to cover the back of my hand, so I joined, crossing the first 2 stitches of each fabric face to prevent a gap. Once joined I knit on 6 dp needles until the wrist cuff was about 4.5 inches long, say 11 or 12 cm. Long enough to give good coverage for my wrist, but not so long as to go over the larger part of my lower arm.

After wearing them some I think if I make more that I'll change the increase rate for the last few flat rows (say 5 or 6 increases) before joining to every 3rd row, making the part of the back of the hand a bit longer before joining. They are working, but I'm finding that my thumb moving around as I'm wearing them is affecting how they ride on my hand.